With a good deal of the States and Provincials results in, you can start to get a very clear picture of what the metagame is going to be for our local Type 2 tournaments over the next couple of months. The diversity is good for a format with only five sets, and it isn't just a repeat of the block season, which I'm sure a lot of players will enjoy.

The decks that made the best showings were Affinity, U/W Control, Astral Slide, Goblin Bidding, and R/G Land Destruction/Beasts, in that order. There does seem to be a best deck available, which doesn't have any bad matchups, but it is very skill-intensive to play.

U/W Control
I could be biased, but U/W seems better than all the other decks, hands down. The deck's holes are patched up well by the sideboard, but the mirror is terribly annoying to play at times, and difficult to win if you are impatient.

Personally, I would not play anything other than U/W right now. Astral Slide's only chances to beat U/W are a turn 2 Lightning Rift, or a turn 3 morph. After game 1 you have all the answers with Annuls, some extra Scrabbling Claws, and eight Wrath of God effects main to stop quick Exalted Angels. Dark Affinity can Persecute turn 4 and counter your counter if they get two Talismans, but that seems like their best chance to win the game. Against Goblin Bidding, you have to walk a tightrope between not losing to Goblin beatings, and not losing to a timely Patriarch's Bidding.

I haven't played against R/G very much, but it seems like counters and card drawing beat the resource denial approach, you just have to not get Plowed Under when you deal with a Troll Ascetic or Ravenous Baloth. I tried cutting Complicates, but it made the deck simply not as powerful in the mirror. I would love to have access to another Scrabbling Claws in the main, and another Stifle out of the board, but the list doesn't have much room left to tweak it with. This is the best version I have came up with:

7 Island
8 Plains
2 Lonely Sandbar
1 Secluded Steppe
2 Stalking Stones
2 Temple of the False God
4 Coastal Tower
3 Eternal Dragon
2 Exalted Angel
3 Decree of Justice
4 Mana Leak
4 Rewind
3 Complicate
3 Concentrate
2 Decree of Silence
4 Wrath of God
4 Akroma's Vengeance
2 Scrabbling Claws

Sideboard:
1 Scrabbling Claws
3 Annul
4 Circle of Protection: Red
4 Karma
3 Stifle

Astral Slide
R/W doesn't seem to be in this format, really. It can't reliably beat U/W without maindeck Obliterate, which may be its best plan. The deck is obviously great against normal Goblins, but a timely Bidding is usually game over. Against R/G it's a battle, you have to get a little mana flooded, or they have to get just a couple of LD spells for it to not go your way.

You can counter Plow Under with an Eternal Dragon, making it just destroy two lands, instead of bounce two land and get two awful draw steps. Turn 2 Lightning Rift, turn 3 Astral Slide should be game, but typically the R/G player will board in Naturalize. A face down Angel can also go the distance, as most R/G builds have to kill it right then and they don't have a lot of resources they can dedicate to that.

Against Affinity, you have to rely on your enchantments and Wrath effects to win the game. They typically will pull you through in game 1, but game 2 is a lot harder. Dark Affinity will be bring in more Persecutes, along with some enchantment removal. Your only job is to play around Persecute the best you can, by playing your cards.

4 Lightning Rift
4 Astral Slide
4 Wrath of God
3 Starstorm
4 Gilded Light
4 Eternal Dragon
3 Exalted Angel
2 Decree of Justice
2 Obliterate
4 Renewed Faith
2 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Secluded Steppe
4 Forgotten Cave
2 Temple of the False God
9 Plains
5 Mountain

Sideboard:
1 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Scrabbling Claws
3 Akroma's Vengeance
4 Karma
4 Circle Of Protection: Red

I got a lot of hate mail about my opinions on Affinity. I still don't think it is that good. In our testing it either lost to Slide or it lost to Goblins, and it always lost to U/W. The R/G deck has a lot of hate built into the main and sideboard, and the Affinity deck doesn't like you to mess with their resources. This list seems to be the most balanced - and since I won't play the deck in a tournament, I have no changes.

The deck runs seven counters, but that's not so many that your opponent can't play around them. If it's developing early, you have plenty of time to use your game plan, but he does have a few good answers to Exalted Angel. Only eleven threats seems a little low (though I like Lodestone Myr a lot) but this deck seems very well put together.

3 Broodstar
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Aether Spellbomb
3 Chrome Mox
4 Mana Leak
3 Override
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
3 Shrapnel Blast
4 Talisman of Progress
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Thoughtcast
4 Ancient Den
4 Glimmervoid
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod

Sideboard:
2 Annul
4 Pyroclasm
3 Second Sunrise
3 Shatter
3 Stifle

Moldy Hermit
This version of the R/G deck just doesn't seem like it should be in its current form, it should try to make up its mind. On the ride to States one of my friends decided to play Molder Slug, when we found out it was a beast, and he only ran ten Land Destruction spells, including only two Plow Unders.

That leaves you with a very spartan plan of attack against most control decks, which is what he faced most of the day. He also got Biddinged out a couple of times, which could've been helped out by picking a path and focusing the deck a little better.

I like Aaron Muranaka's list but I believe thirty-one mana sources is too many. Try running another Silklash Spider, and three Lay Waste in place of Vine Trellis. That will keep you from drawing dead walls against control, but it will hurt you a bit against Goblins. The walls can only stop a little damage, but it adds up quickly. With the format revolving around control at this point, the extra land destruction would be very helpful. With the extra LD main you could cut Molten Rain from the sideboard for another Obliterate, another Contested Cliffs, and a couple of Gempalm Incinerators.

4 Birds of Paradise
3 Lay Waste
4 Troll Ascetic
4 Ravenous Baloth
4 Molder Slug
2 Silklash Spider
4 Creeping Mold
4 Plow Under
4 Stone Rain
4 Starstorm
8 Forest
6 Mountain
2 Contested Cliffs
3 Shivan Oasis
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:
4 Naturalize
2 Silklash Spider
4 Pyroclasm
4 Molten Rain
1 Obliterate

Goblin Bidding has a very simple plan - deal you some early damage, then bring back all their kids for a lethal reprise via Patriarch's Bidding. The deck runs into trouble if it doesn't get a fast start, or doesn't get the right graveyard when they have a chance to cast Bidding. The mana isn't much of an issue, mostly because of Zvi telling people what lands to run.

Against U/W you just have to keep enough pressure to make them Wrath, the play a Siege-Gang Commander or a Bidding. In game 2 you have to work against COP's, which means you overload them and watch them Wrath your army, or try to set up a Bidding and have it countered. Flashfires is helpful, but it doesn't resolve often enough. Sulfuric Vortex is just terrible right now, as the White decks will just watch you kill yourself, and cast an occasional spell. Coercion isn't a terrible option, but it costs one mana more than a Circle of Protection... maybe you can Prospector it out. Heh.

4 Gempalm Incinerator
3 Goblin Goon
4 Goblin Piledriver
3 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Sledder
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Skirk Prospector
3 Sparksmith
3 Patriarch's Bidding
3 Chrome Mox
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 City of Brass
11 Mountain
3 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Flashfires
1 Patriarch's Bidding
3 Shatter
1 Sparksmith
4 Dark Banishing
2 Coercion

Mono Black Control is also floating around, but it didn't post very many of exciting results, probably because all the White decks were running Karma. The deck has quite a few of variations, and it has a lot of power, but it either concedes to Karma, or blows up both sides of the board with a disk.

Overall, the format is still very healthy, and after seeing how Pro Tour: New Orleans unfolded, I'm very glad I skipped. We had a good Tinker deck with Mindslaver in the main, and we were trying out Red, but as a group we were far behind the French and Scandinavians. Maybe I'll qualify for Amsterdam this weekend so I can skip that too.

Matthew Mann

mmann1 at utk.edu